Touring Tourist Tucson

Now onto the second half of our Tucson trip. As I mentioned before, we did a lot of Tourist Tucson once Kevin showed up.

Monday was Labor Day. We went out to the Old Tucson Studios. I can't even remember the last time I was out there. This was a perfect day to be at the studios, it was one of the least hot days, and there were very few people to wait in line with. To be authentic, we all tried on Cowboy hats. We all look pretty good, I think!

We took a tour of the facilities and they told us all about the many movies that had been filmed there. Lots of old westerns and a more modern one that Kevin likes, The Three Amigos, with Chevy Chase. The most fun of the day though, was experiencing the rides with the girls. This was their first "amusement park" and they had tons of fun! Makes a trip to Disneyland even more appealing (if that is even possible).

We rode the antique motor cars several times. We all got a kick out of that, but especially Avery.

We also rode the carousel and the small train that went around the park. Such fun!

Tuesday we drove to the top of Mt. Lemmon. The 74 degree weather was an extremely welcome change and the view was incredible! The picture at the start of this blog post is of the view. Avery's only complaint about the trip, was that she didn't see any Lemons. :) As you can see, Claire mostly enjoyed just getting out of the car.

More of the gorgeous view. I may be a little biased about these next 2 pictures though.

On our way down the mountain, we stopped in the little community on the mountain, Summerhaven, and enjoyed a fantastic pizza! We also got rained on while enjoying our lunch. It was the first rain storm we can remember Claire experiencing.

On Wednesday we visited with Grandmom and Granddad again at their new apartments and took a tour of the entire facility. Avery was especially excited to see an orange tree. I think it almost made up for not having lemons on Mt. Lemmon.

One other touristy activity we got to do while in Tucson, is one of my favorite things. Gaslight!! I don't have any pictures of that evening, but it was a hilarious show called Wizard of the Rings. Kevin, myself, Mom and Dad all got to go and laugh and eat hot fudge sundaes! So much fun.

Thursday we began the long trip back to Austin. We decided we had experienced enough of Claire's screaming in the rear facing car seat and fixed that problem before we left Tucson. So this is the view we had on the way home. We took it in 2 days and were very glad to be done traveling when we got back.

That's all for now. After a bit I will post the 1 year birthday celebration pictures. Thank you all for a wonderful trip to Tucson!